Wilderness Wanderings

To give your podcasters time for vacation, the following 10 weeks will include some Wilderness Wanderings Reruns. Certainly not every day, but often enough to give us space for spiritual rest. If you have tagged an episode as particularly meaningful for you, let us know so we can consider sending it out again. To follow up on Pastor Anthony's reflection yesterday, here is a rerun rooted in Romans 12.

Love must be sincere (Romans 12:9a).

One might argue that this little phrase, "Love must be sincere", is the heart of Romans 12. Everything that has come before--the stuff about personal transformation: "…in view of God's mercy…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God…be transformed by the renewing of your mind…discerning God's good, pleasing and perfect will…" and the stuff about the relationships within the church, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others…we have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us…"--all of this leads into the command, "Love must be sincere."

Yes, it is written as a command. Actually, the phrase has no verb. Its as if the apostle is saying, "Love that is sincere will…" and then he spends the rest of the chapter telling us what sincere love is all about.

In our culture, the word love has become rather vague. It's lost its crispness. We love sweaters and the weather and we love each other. It's a feeling that comes and goes like a wave in the bay. We also claim to make love. So, what is love and what makes it sincere?

The word used for love here is agape. So far in Romans all references to agape have been to the 'love of God'—as demonstrated on the cross (5:8), as poured into our hearts (5:5) and as doggedly refusing to let us go (8:35, 39). This is a pursuing, wooing, winning back kind of love. The lover is willing to sacrifice himself unto death to express his love. So that is our reference point, our example. But it is also our source. This love has been poured into us. Now it must flow out. Here the focus shifts to agape, that is, love, as the essence of Christian discipleship. Romans 12-15 are a sustained encouragement to let love govern and shape all our relationships. At the end of the chapter, Paul will write about love for our enemies (17-21), but first he portrays it as pervading the Christian community (9-16).

The word 'sincere' means 'without hypocrisy'. In the ancient world, hypocrite was the word for actor. Thus, Paul starts by saying that acts and words of love must not be pretend. We should not tell someone we love them, when we really don't. Neither should we act in love, when in reality, we despise or even hate someone. For early Christians, the primary example of non-sincere love was Judas, betraying Jesus with a kiss. This was hypocritical love in its vilest form.

It is in this matter of sincere love that Christian discipleship is counter-cultural. Feelings are paramount among us. "If I don't feel like it, I don't have to do it." But for Christians love is the law (13:8-10). When Paul says that love must be sincere, what he means is that if we don't feel loving, we need to change our attitude; our hearts need to change. We need to love like God loves us. How does that happen? The cure for a non-loving heart is not to try harder. It is to look to God, to see his love for me. For Christians, confession is not primarily about feeling bad, it's the road to experiencing God's mercy again. Love begins with a view to God's mercy. Only with our eyes fixed on Jesus, can our love become sincere. So, let us fix our eyes on him.

As you fix your eyes on him, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you.

May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm.

May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you.

May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:16-21)

In response to some religious leaders that had accused Jesus of driving out demons by the power of the prince of demons, Jesus replied that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

There is an insidious scheme of the devil by which he seeks to do precisely that: divide the household of faith so that it might not stand. He does this by causing us to avoid, fear, and imagine the worst of our siblings in Christ so that our love for one another might grow cold. This is the very thing Jesus warns against in his words on the end times in Matthew 24. Paul warns against it in 1 Corinthians 2:5-11 as well. Even 1 Samuel 18 tells this story, especially verses 12-16 where King Saul's fear grows and consumes him with mistrust, while David increasingly lives in a different world marked by love.

The antidote to this sort of demonic division, is to receive the love of God who is love and to live this love of God very practically in our love for one another. Said differently: the antidote is to receive Jesus—the word of love in action—and become like him in that loving action. This is harder than it looks.

We will toss around little slogans like "just love" or "love instead of hate." But very often when we do this, we are speaking of loving those that we find it easy to love—those we think that others should start loving just as much. Jesus' form of love is something harder than that.

Jesus loved the sinners and the marginalized, yes, but Jesus also loved his enemies. Jesus loved a sinful humanity that conspired to kill him in the form of a Sanhedrin, Pilate, and soldiers, and he loved this sinful humanity embodied in these people that were killing him, even as they were killing him. The words on his lips were "Father, forgive." Who of us have loved a friend to that point, let alone an enemy?

This work of love is beyond any of us, unless we are actively seeking to receive God's own love for us to empower us to do it. Only in God's love can we offer costly words of forgiveness even before an offender has repented. Only in God's love can the impossible divides of fear and mistrust be overcome. And they must be overcome. "For whoever does not love their brother or sister" in the church "whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." "He has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister." I am convinced this is the hardest command in the Bible, but also the most important—as the New Testament everywhere attests.

On our own, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. And we know it's possible, because this is what Jesus has done for us. We love, because he first loved us.

If you'd like some additional wisdom on what love through forgiveness is and isn't, check out this booklet "Forgiveness Fundamentals" from CRC media ministry, Family Fire.

To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Greet all God's people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All God's people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen (Philippians 4:20-23).

This letter of Philippians ends where it began. All the saints are commended to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the grace that transformed Paul from a persecutor of the church into an apostle of the gospel. In all the challenges the young church is experiencing, the grace of our Lord Jesus is enough! It is the remedy for their every need. This grace reveals all of Jesus' glories—his power, his helpfulness, his riches—and makes them available to his people. His grace has no limits. Not then, not now

As we close our reflections on this letter, let's consider this grace. Do we understand its depth and its breadth? The Roman world was as broken along racial, national, social, and religious divisions as ours is. Yet, Paul describes a new humanity which has come to birth, a new people transcending our human fragmentations. This new community, the church, includes members of Caesar's household along with the Christians in Philippi. He encourages them to reach across the old barriers and greet each other as saints in Christ Jesus.

And that is the key: we are all saints in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Everything hinges on him and his work on our behalf. This Jesus is Lord, echoing the Old Testament self revelation of God as the "I Am" (Exodus 3:14). Being in very nature God, he is the God of Israel, the one and only God. This is 'the name which is above every name' conferred on him because of his obedience to the point of death (2:9).

As saints in Jesus, he is both our Lord and our Saviour. In this letter, Paul sums up the gracious saving work of Christ with one word: 'righteousness'. The grace of Jesus brings us into a right relationship with God and it declares that we are righteous in his sight; no longer stained by our sin. This is the gift which God gives (3:9). The gift is inseparable from Christ, given by his grace. We possess it only by faith in him.

This saving faith, a personal leaning upon Christ, is part of grace. It 'has been granted' (1:29) to us by him 'who began a good work' (1:6) in us. Salvation is all of God and all in Christ. Both our status before God and our ongoing relationship with him are, therefore, solely due to Christ. The grace of our Lord brought us to conversion and this same grace will usher us fully sanctified into the new creation. Then, every tongue will confess him, Lord.

In the meantime, the Spirit of Jesus Christ leads us to produce 'fruits of righteousness'. This is the biblical doctrine of sanctification: we are to become what we are. In Christ, through his Spirit, we are given a new nature, now we must learn to live it. Again, grace leads the way.

Living the new life is demanding. Paul describes it as standing firm under attack (1:27) and pressing on in a race (3:14). It is not a feat of stoical endurance but a response of love and devotion. Paul's phrases, 'to me to live is Christ' (1:21); 'rejoice in the Lord' (3:1); boasting in Christ Jesus (3:3); knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (3:8); gaining Christ and being found in him (8-9); are all variations on this one theme. We love and adore him.

Paul's delight was to know Jesus now, daily to know him better and in the end to know him fully. One of the greatest incentives to holiness in the New Testament is that we might be ready for him when he returns. For us, as for himself, Paul wanted nothing but a daily and deepening experience of Jesus. To dig ever deeper into this grace, that, as it transformed him from persecutor to apostle, it may transform us. And so, he ends where he began: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:17-19)

It's interesting: Paul flips in this section into the language of accounts receivable and payable. It's a different format than he has been using. Commentators have therefore struggled with this text: "why does Paul use such cold language?" they wonder.

Well maybe there is a reason for it. I am reminded of CS Lewis in his essay "The Weight of Glory." In it, he talks about the proper rewards for the life of Christian faith and our desires for those rewards. We are often a bit ashamed to admit it, but there are promises in the New Testament that we will receive things like "treasures in heaven," or "a crown of glory," things that are above and beyond just our salvation in Christ.

I have to think of those texts and CS Lewis's words when I think of this text in Philippians 4. Paul's desire was not for gifts from the Philippians, even though he is blessed by them and receives them gratefully. But his desire is not stuff for stuff 's own sake. His desire, is to look through the stuff to what it means. And, what it means is a gift of love from the Philippians as a response of faith to God. These gifts mean that God's word is bearing good fruit through the Philippians.

If that's what these gifts mean to Paul, what do they mean for the Philippians? Well, Paul says it means that there's more credited to their account. For Paul's part, he's received full payment. He has more than enough. There's abundance in the Kingdom of God even when he goes without, because he is strengthened not by the stuff of this world but by Christ.

There is a recognition of a gift economy at work here. The things that the Philippians give are "a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice" given in response to all that God has given. You think back to those words of Romans 12 about being "living sacrifices," giving all in the service of God—all that you have and all that you are. When we do that, we store up treasures for ourselves in heaven, a crown of reward.

We do it, of course, not to get that reward per say, but as a response of faith—in order to be pleasing to God, recognizing as Paul had said already, that our contentment—our rest—is in Christ. So we can say with Paul that "our God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." Whether he does so in this world or the next, it does not change the calculus: God has given much. We are amply supplied in Christ and therefore we give as a response of faith. It's a joyful storing up not in this life and according to the rules of this world, but rather according to the Kingdom principles of the world to come.

These are the accounts payable and receivable that Paul is speaking of, I think. So as this week stretches on, may you respond in faith to all the riches that you have received in Christ Jesus, trusting that God will meet all your needs according to those riches.

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Matthew 13:1-23 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. What do you usually do with or think about the familiar Parable of the Sower?

2. What kind of soil sample best describes your heart?

3. What kind of soil sample best describes our church? What do you make of what Pastor Anthony suggested?

4. What kind of soil sample best describes the culture? What do you make of what Pastor Anthony suggested?

5. What are some practical ways that you might fertilize and water the soil this summer?

6. Where, ultimately, does our hope lie? What is the good news of how God is at work that shines through in this passage?

Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. (Philippians 4:14-16)

Yesterday we talked about the necessity of learning to receive in order to live the Christian life. If we feel we can do everything ourselves, we're unlikely to feel the need of receiving a saviour—because, what would we need to be saved from? And if, on the other side, we feel guilty when we receive or when we have to admit our need, we're less likely to receive the gift of God's grace that's on offer. So: to receive the life and salvation that Jesus gives, we need to know how to receive!

We love, because we have first received the love of God. Receiving the good gifts that God has initiated is where it all starts. But here's the trick: a true and healthy relationship does not only flow in one direction.

You might disagree. Parental relationships are largely one way. God's relationship with us too. Yes and no though. Parents DO get something out of raising kids. Is it imbalanced? Of course! But parents do also receive the cuteness, the smiles, the gifts made, and the joy of watching a little one grow and learn and respond. Parents do all sorts of odd things to get their newborn to respond to them so that they have something they can receive.

Relationships are two ways. And when they aren't, we label those relationships as cold, distant, overbearing, or even abusive. When we are treated like a number instead of like a person, we baulk at that. It happens when we are only able to receive instructions, but not able to give feedback—a totally one-way relationship in which we are not heard.

So, God may be infinitely more powerful than we are, but in Jesus Christ, he has stooped down to our humanity to become a person with whom we can share a mutuality: a relationship of giving and receiving. When Jesus came in the flesh among us, he was not firstly the giver of life, but was the receiver of care as an infant. He received the hospitality of dinner hosts. He received a drink from the woman at the well when he was thirsty. For Jesus: relationships were not one-way, top-down things—relationships shared a healthy mutuality: a back and forth, a giving and a receiving.

Though, there was one time when Jesus did have a one-way relationship. It was with the religious leaders—they came to the point where they stopped listening or responding to him at all. The disagreement was so sharp that they silenced him altogether by crucifixion. They would receive from him nothing, and give him everything—their sin and death. He received it.

The new life we now have in Christ ensures that our relationship with him will never again be killed by a one-way flattening. A mutuality now flows. We receive from him gifts, wealth, life, health, forgiveness, and salvation. We respond with prayers, gifts, confession, service, obedience, worship, and a sharing of our hearts.

This mutuality spills over into our Christian relationships with one another. We learn what it is to be content, but also the importance of continuing to humbly receive and to gratefully give. Not everyone catches the implications of this gospel logic right away. Some churches were content only to receive, but not respond. And others wanted only perhaps to give, as a form of running up their account so to speak—a form of gaining leverage, influence, and control.

The Philippians were different. They immediately caught this implication of the gospel—that it demanded healthy, loving, mutual relationships from the start—the very thing that Christ had established with them. And so they immediately begin sharing with Paul in the matter of giving and receiving.

How about you? Do your relationships flow both ways? With God? With others? Examine them and lay them before God to determine how you might best share in the practice of giving and receiving.

*For those who listen: a note of apology for poor sound quality! We'll aim for better tomorrow!

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. (Philippians 4:13-14)

Paul has learned contentment in all things through his reliance on Christ, but that doesn't mean he's unwilling to receive support.

There can be a rather stoic attitude that we carry when it comes to receiving support from someone else. We say no when someone offers to pay for or give us something. And, we can feel a certain level of guilt or shame after receiving something from someone—as if our relationship is now out of balance because we owe them or have seemed "in need" to them.

This comes, because we feel like the only appropriate way to live is to strive to "make it on our own" and be "self-sufficient." Our entire culture is organized this way. The majority of us rent or own our own property where we live detached from other households. We work jobs to support ourselves and our households. We own vehicles by which we can drive ourselves to where we need to go. We build up savings and portfolios to ensure that we will remain independent after retirement. All of these things are constructed so that we will never need to rely on the hospitality of another. We implicitly believe that all people should be able to do life in just this way: on their own, without burdening anyone else.

Of course, we also recognize that some people just can't do it that way, so we make sure the government provides services for them through our taxes. Even so, somewhere deep in our heart of hearts, we may very well suspect this group of people to somehow be weak, lazy, lesser, or at fault for it. "They did it to themselves," we think: "they deserve what they get."

All of this flows in the same direction. The cultural assumption is that one should be able to do life on one's own, without the support or intervention of others. To do less than this is to fail at life somehow.

We hold on, therefore, to the words of Jesus that: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." This is the way things are supposed to be: stand on your own two feet and give to the needy who can't.

And yet: if we can do it all ourselves—what need do we have of a saviour? Indeed, many in our society have come to the very logical conclusion that we don't. "We've managed this life just fine on our own, thank you. We don't need help from anyone else—including God."

And if guilt and shame is what we feel when we have to admit need or when we receive something from someone: doesn't that actually work against our receiving the one and only thing we actually do need but can't get on our own: i.e. God's grace in Jesus?

The culture of our relatively wealthy, peaceful, and independent society actively works against the logic of the faith. The contentment in Christ we spoke of yesterday includes the willingness and the ability to receive with gratitude and thanksgiving—recognizing, once again, that our lives are not our own creation and that we are not the ones who hold on. It is Christ who holds on to us. Christ who provides for us.

This work of receiving is a necessary spiritual discipline to counteract the spiritual assumptions of our culture. More on that tomorrow. :-)

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Our circumstances vary wildly across life. Yesterday we recognized that as we talked about the ever-changing seasons of life. Knowing bits of Paul's story as we do from the book of Acts and some of his writings in letters like these, we know that this was true in his life as well. We know some of the situations of "plenty" and "want" that he faced. Lest we forget: Paul sent this letter to Philippians from a place of imprisonment.

In our own lives: there are times we have things to celebrate: births and baptisms, weddings and graduations, professions of faith, anniversaries, retirements, and any number of other changes and gifts that arrive along our way. But there are also things to grieve: deaths, losses, accidents, partings, diseases, and any number of other hardships. With those highs and lows of life, come ebbs and flows in resources available to us as well. Some seasons are richer, some leaner.

Amidst these changing circumstances and seasons of life, contentment can seem like a moving target. How can I be content when it is painfully obvious that I don't have what my peers have? How can I be content when I (or my loved one/friend) is facing a medical crisis? How can I be content when I bear the weight of so much weariness, anxiety, or uncertainty about the future? Or my children? Or the church? Or society? Or the world?

Paul offers an answer. It is simple, perhaps deceivingly simple. How can one be content in all these different circumstances and seasons of life? Only through Christ. The one who gives us the strength.

To continue to beat the drum of the refrain we used throughout the series on Galatians in worship: it is Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ alone.

To hold on to Jesus through all the changes of our lives is a very simple thing… and yet also a profoundly difficult thing. In order to do it, one has to see the world upside-down, I think. Because it is actually the other way round: we do not firstly hold on to Jesus—he is actually the one who is holding on to us. He is the one who loved us. Died for us. Called us. Chose us. Forgave us. Adopted us. Nothing can separate us from his love, because it does not depend on the strength of our grip on Jesus, but his grip on us. And he is able to hold on.

Looking at the world upside-down in this way also reveals to us that it's not about what lies in our hands at any given moment. What counts, is what is in Jesus' hand. And as the children's song reminds us: Jesus has, not just us, but the whole world in his hands. Every natural resource belongs to him. Every breath we breathe is yet another gift of life he has given—this God who first breathed into us. Every skill that can be possessed is part of his creation. Jesus has and is enough for all we need.

It is not about seeing what is in our hands, but about seeing that we are held in his.

I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. (Philippians 4:10)

Hot off the heals of Paul's invitation to practice what they have learned and seen, Paul immediately begins to talk of how the Philippians have indeed practiced what they have seen Paul live and teach! Unsurprisingly, their practice of generosity has brought Paul to rejoicing.

It is not as if, therefore, Paul was scolding the Philippians before. It was not as if the only news in Philippi was bad news about fights between these two women Euodia and Syntyche and others that demanded correction. No: the same life lived in the mindset of Christ Jesus that Paul has traced and invited, he now brings the Philippians to recognize already within themselves, too.

The imagery behind the phrase "at last you renewed your concern for me" is an image drawn from nature. It is a picture of Spring—of life bursting forth from the dirt and branches after a long season of death and stillness. There was a season when the Philippians had "no opportunity to show" their concern, but now the seasons have changed and their concern for Paul has visibly sprung back to life once again.

Whatever else may be drawn from this passage, there at least can be a recognition that our practice of the Christian life ebbs and flows. There is a seasonality to the things we practice. We are not perpetual motion machines that mechanically repeat the exact same patterns of life and faith from birth to death. We are not assembly line robots. No: we are living things. And so there are seasons when we are able to give and seasons when we are unable. Seasons when we are able to serve and others in which we are not. The familiar words of Ecclesiastes 3 come to mind: there is time for every activity under heaven, like "a time to plant and a time to uproot."

This notion perhaps runs against the grain of our sensibilities. On the one hand—we know this to be true. Even when, like the Philippians we remain concerned for everything—that doesn't mean that we can actually do everything all the time—we have limited time and resources. On the other hand though, we can feel guilty about this. Aren't we supposed to be unfailingly faithful in every good spiritual discipline like Bible reading, prayer, giving, serving, etc? The trick, perhaps, is to recognize that faithfulness does not lock us to a static, unchanging routine.

Just as a good workout routine will employ variation to alternate the working and resting of different muscle groups at different times, so a good routine of spiritual discipline will shift around the burden to different areas of our spiritual capacity over time to ensure a mature, well-rounded relationship with God and our neighbours.

In her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun says it this way: "Like every other living thing, humans have seasons. Winter, summer, autumn and spring are real places on the spiritual journey. These seasons cycle through our lives bringing times of fruit-bearing, root-deepening, drought and deep waiting. No matter how old or young we are, seasons come and go and return to come and go again. Some disciplines can be more suited to one season than another. When choosing a spiritual discipline, pay attention to your spiritual season" (p. 326).

God calls us into different practices in different seasons: different forms of attentiveness to our relationship with him and our neighbours. The point in all this, no matter the changes, is that we remain faithfully attentive to these relationships with God and neighbour.

So: where are you at in the seasons of life? What grace does God speak to you today in terms of inviting you to pick up or lay down different activities of faithful spiritual discipline?

If you'd like to read further, let me know and I can forward you a copy of Calhoun's 8-page guide to discerning the season you're in and the spiritual disciplines that might be appropriate to it. This is a good part of the work of faith formation across the seasons of our lives.

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings (a day late due to a technical mishap)! The text is Galatians 6 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. What seems to be the trouble in your life that the grace of this passage from Galatians 6 meets today?

2. Why is sin not the main issue Paul is addressing here? What's the case for weariness being a greater issue?

3. Why are we weary? How have we learned to cope with it or avoid naming it as an issue? What does that weariness look like (from what Pastor Anthony said, or from your own experience)? What opportunities for temptation and salvation lie within our weariness?

4. What is the good news for weary people? And how is it good news?

5. What does it look like, in community, to "carry each other's burdens, and in this way… fulfill the law of Christ?"

6. How might you seek rest in Jesus and his Cross/Yoke for yourself and for others this week?